How to become Tile and Stone Setter in 2024

Tile and Stone Setter Apply hard tile, stone, and comparable materials to walls, floors, ceilings, countertops, and roof decks.

Tile and Stone Setter is Also Know as

In different settings, Tile and Stone Setter is titled as

  • Ceramic Tile Mechanic
  • Ceramic Tile Setter
  • Tile and Marble Installer
  • Tile and Marble Setter
  • Tile Finisher
  • Tile Installer
  • Tile Man
  • Tile Mason
  • Tile Mechanic
  • Tile Setter

Education and Training of Tile and Stone Setter

Tile and Stone Setter is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Tile and Stone Setter

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for Tile and Stone Setter

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to Tile and Stone Setter

Training Required for Tile and Stone Setter

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Tile and Stone Setter in different industries are

What Do Tile and Stone Setter do?

  • Align and straighten tile using levels, squares, and straightedges.
  • Determine and implement the best layout to achieve a desired pattern.
  • Cut and shape tile to fit around obstacles and into odd spaces and corners, using hand and power cutting tools.
  • Finish and dress the joints and wipe excess grout from between tiles, using damp sponge.
  • Apply mortar to tile back, position the tile, and press or tap with trowel handle to affix tile to base.
  • Mix, apply, and spread plaster, concrete, mortar, cement, mastic, glue or other adhesives to form a bed for the tiles, using brush, trowel and screed.
  • Prepare cost and labor estimates, based on calculations of time and materials needed for project.
  • Measure and mark surfaces to be tiled, following blueprints.
  • Level concrete and allow to dry.
  • Build underbeds and install anchor bolts, wires, and brackets.
  • Prepare surfaces for tiling by attaching lath or waterproof paper, or by applying a cement mortar coat to a metal screen.
  • Study blueprints and examine surface to be covered to determine amount of material needed.
  • Cut, surface, polish, and install marble and granite or install pre-cast terrazzo, granite or marble units.
  • Install and anchor fixtures in designated positions, using hand tools.
  • Cut tile backing to required size, using shears.
  • Remove any old tile, grout and adhesive using chisels and scrapers and clean the surface carefully.
  • Lay and set mosaic tiles to create decorative wall, mural, and floor designs.
  • Assist customers in selection of tile and grout.
  • Remove and replace cracked or damaged tile.
  • Measure and cut metal lath to size for walls and ceilings, using tin snips.
  • Select and order tile and other items to be installed, such as bathroom accessories, walls, panels, and cabinets, according to specifications.
  • Mix and apply mortar or cement to edges and ends of drain tiles to seal halves and joints.
  • Spread mastic or other adhesive base on roof deck to form base for promenade tile, using serrated spreader.
  • Apply a sealer to make grout stain- and water-resistant.
  • Brush glue onto manila paper on which design has been drawn and position tiles, finished side down, onto paper.

Qualities of Good Tile and Stone Setter

  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Tile and Stone Setter

  • Acoustic ear muffs or defenders
  • Adjustable widemouth pliers
  • Air compressors
  • Angle grinders
  • Articulating boom lifts
  • Base grinders
  • Bench vises
  • Blow torches
  • Builders' levels
  • Bull floats
  • Buttering trowels
  • Caulking guns
  • Chalk lines
  • Chipping hammers
  • Claw hammers
  • Cold chisels
  • Colloidal mixers
  • Double-sided files
  • Drum cement mixers
  • Dust collectors
  • Dust masks
  • Ear plugs
  • Electric winches
  • Exhaust fans
  • Eyewash facilities
  • Face shields
  • Fall arrest systems
  • Finishing trowels
  • Flat trowels
  • Floor grinding machines
  • Floor polishers
  • Floor scrapers
  • Floor scrubbers
  • Gas generators
  • Gauging trowels
  • Goggles
  • Grinding stones
  • Grout floats
  • Grout saws
  • Grout scrapers
  • Grouting trowels
  • Hacksaws
  • Hammer drills
  • Hammers
  • Hard hats
  • Heavy gauge trowels
  • Horizontal shaft mixers
  • Hot glue guns
  • Jackhammers
  • Ladder jacks
  • Ladders
  • Laser levels
  • Laser squares
  • Layout sticks
  • Levels
  • Lifelines
  • Magnesium floats
  • Mallets
  • Margin trowels
  • Mechanical scaffolds
  • Mini grinders
  • Mixing drills
  • Molding prybars
  • Notch trowels
  • Notebook computers
  • Pan mixers
  • Personal computers
  • Plumb bobs
  • Point trowels
  • Polishers
  • Portable mortar mixers
  • Power buffers
  • Power chisels
  • Power drills
  • Power routers
  • Power scarifiers
  • Power tile saws
  • Power undercut saws
  • Pry bars
  • Putty knives
  • Respirators
  • Rolling scaffolds
  • Rubber hammers
  • Safety glasses
  • Safety gloves
  • Scaffolding
  • Scissor lifts
  • Screeds
  • Screwdrivers
  • Serrated spreaders
  • Socket wrench sets
  • Spreader spatulas
  • Squares
  • Stand-up screw guns
  • Staple guns
  • Stationary scaffolds
  • Stone grinders
  • Stone polishers
  • Story pole tape measures
  • Straightedges
  • Suction cups
  • Tape measures
  • Tile cutters
  • Tile grout cleaning machines
  • Tile nippers
  • Tin snips
  • Transit levels
  • Utility knives
  • Vertical shaft mixers
  • Water levels
  • Wet saws
  • Wet-dry vacuums
  • Wonder bars
  • Wood floats

Technology Skills required for Tile and Stone Setter

  • Aya Associates Comp-U-Floor
  • EasyCAD Iris 2D
  • Measure Square FloorEstimate Pro
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft operating system
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word
  • Salesforce software
  • TileGem